Pioneer

Dr. Morten Bay USC Annenberg School of Communication

MBR | Winter 2021 | Volume 01 | Issue 01 157 The emergence of the Internet has profoundly affected our existence and the world we live in. Rooted in the efforts of a small group of people who had a vision and performed the intense labor necessary to realize it, the Internet has grown into a technological movement born of the collaborations of its contributors. One of those essential early figures in the Internet’s history is Leonard Kleinrock. Morten Bay describes Kleinrock’s remarkable life and career as a co-creator of one of the greatest inventions in human history.

he emergence of the Inter- resemblance between its effects and We may also look back and see net has profoundly affected those of the Gutenberg press may how, this year, for the first time in our existence and the world be clearer to us. From that future human history, a pandemic did not we live in. Despite its dark vantage point, we should be able stop the world in its tracks. Although Tcorners and inequities, the Inter- to truly recognize how the Internet the consequences of COVID-19 have net has mostly been a benefit to accelerated decisions in business been devastating, business, educa- humanity, allowing information and politics and how it transformed tion, healthcare, government, and to instantly travel further than exchange, distribution, and the simple socialization, albeit without any technology before it, creat- sharing of goods and resources. physical proximity, continued. Life ing new economic opportunities, continued. And it was in large part and bringing people together into because of the Internet. This aston- a truly global community. Its ad- This year, for the first ishing and diverse global network vent has justly been compared kept millions of quarantined people to that of Gutenberg’s printing time in human history, from losing their minds out of bore- press, which also made knowl- a pandemic did not dom and isolation. edge cheaper, faster, and easier stop the world in its The modern Internet is a tech- to distribute, while creating new nological behemoth born of the markets and increasing the aware- tracks. Although the collaborations of thousands, if not ness and education of people who consequences of millions, of contributors and active had previously had limited access COVID-19 have been participants. But like the Renais- to such resources. sance, it began with a small group The Gutenberg press ushered devastating, business, of people who thought just a wee bit in the Renaissance, a transitional education, healthcare, ahead and devoted themselves to moment in history which shaped government, and simple the intense labor of realizing their the world for hundreds of years. vision. Leonard Kleinrock is one of Yet those who led that charge were socialization, albeit those people. probably unaware that their actions without physical proximity, Dr. Leonard Kleinrock was would resonate through the centu- continued. Life continued. born in on June 13, ries. Our current perception of the 1934. As a child, he visited the 1939 Internet’s impact is probably a simi- And it was in large part World’s Fair and was enthralled by lar underestimation. Perhaps fifty because of the Internet. the many visions of future tech- years from now, when the Inter- nology on display. A year later, net has seen its first century, the the young Kleinrock built the first

158 Volume 01 | Issue 01 | Winter 2021 | MBR of his many electronics projects, that routing data through fixed world’s first network of heteroge- a crystal radio constructed from network paths, the default method nous computers. Roberts brought abandoned equipment and scraps used in the telephone system of Kleinrock on board, the two of of older radios. Already, it was clear the time, was inefficient, since data them having worked together that his future would involve tech- were transmitted in bursts. Instead, since the MIT days. Kleinrock was nology. Kleinrock graduated from he proposed a routing concept in instrumental in bringing packet the Bronx High School of Science which network resources could be switching to the network, one of in 1951. While working during the shared and allocated on demand. the decisions that made ARPANET day, he spent his evenings among While exploring ways to route a stunning success. The network former college dropouts, G.I. Bill messages more efficiently and quickly spawned a plethora of veterans, and driven but under- reliably, Kleinrock struck upon copycat networks which would privileged youngsters like himself. the idea of splitting them up into eventually come together into the He was pursuing an electrical engi- smaller blocks of data that could Internet we now know. Kleinrock neering degree at the City College be routed independently through personally oversaw ARPANET’s of New York. Having been gradu- any available network connection first connection on October 29, ated from CCNY in 1957, Kleinrock and reassembled upon arrival. He 1969, when a Sigma 7 computer received a full scholarship to the evaluated the performance gains at UCLA logged on to a PDP-1 Massachusetts Institute of Tech- of packetization, providing a math- computer at the Stanford Research nology (MIT) where he earned ematical foundation for the tech- Institute. In subsequent years, a master’s degree in 1959 and a nology which now underlies nearly Kleinrock led the team which metic- Ph.D. in 1963, both in electrical all networked data transmissions ulously analyzed and measured . His doctoral commit- and supports the Internet as we the nascent network’s efficiency tee included Dr. , know it. Kleinrock’s dissertation and function. Throughout the famous for his groundbreaking and its related publications elabo- 1970s, their work produced a host work on information theory and rated upon his theory and proved of groundbreaking research publi- mathematical theories of commu- that his system would be more cations and important advances in nication. efficient and reliable than most . Several gradu- routing methods then available. In ate students who passed through 1964, Kleinrock published this and Kleinrock’s ARPANET lab at UCLA Kleinrock contributed other concepts in communication became Internet pioneers in their network theory from his disser- own right. Among them are Vint to the development of tation in Communication Nets – Cerf, co-author of the TCP/IP proto- technologies that now Stochastic Message Flow and Delay cols, , who invented underpin most networked from McGraw-Hill. the series, and , who pioneered the data transmissions, global allocation of IP addresses. including the Internet. Kleinrock was instrumental In 2018, Kleinrock revisited and extended a 1979 paper, intro- While at MIT, Kleinrock worked in bringing packet ducing the concept that power with a group of doctoral classmates switching to the network, is the key metric when optimiz- which included fellow computing one of the decisions ing flow in packet networks. The and Internet pioneers Lawrence paper presented a better approach Roberts and Ivan Sutherland. All that made ARPANET a to TCP/IP congestion control and three used the large TX-2 computer stunning success. persuaded Google to adopt the at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories and, power metric when it redesigned in this common work environment, By that time, Kleinrock had the YouTube network. Kleinrock forged a lifelong bond of friend- joined the faculty at the University also introduced the innovative ship. Kleinrock developed a math- of California Los Angeles’ Depart- concept of nomadic computing in a ematical theory of packetized data ment of Computer Science. In 1967, 1995 paper. He has received count- in networks for his doctoral disser- the Defense Advanced Research less awards and accolades, includ- tation. He expanded upon queuing Project Agency, or DARPA (then ing the National Medal of Science theory to explore ways to model, ARPA), tasked Lawrence Roberts (2008), The National Academy of analyze, and optimize these data with planning and managing the Engineering’s networks. Most vitally, he realized construction of ARPANET, the Prize (2001), The

MBR | Winter 2021 | Volume 01 | Issue 01 159 (1986) and the Swedish Ericsson In 1988, Leonard Kleinrock forum for high-level executives in Award (1982). chaired the National Research the technology industry. Kleinrock Council committee upon whose is now a distinguished professor report then-Senator based emeritus at UCLA which, in 2020, In 1988, Leonard his 1991 High Performance Comput- awarded him the UCLA Medal for Kleinrock chaired the ing Act. The bill dramatically his service to the university, an improved infra- institution to which he has devoted National Research structure across the U.S. and paved himself for more than five Council upon whose the way for the Internet’s current decades. report then-Senator Al ubiquity. While continuing his professorship at UCLA, Kleinrock Dr. Morten Bay is a Gore based his 1991 has founded several successful research fellow at the High Performance companies. One of the first was Center for the Digital Computing Act. The Linkabit, founded with Dr. Andrew Future at USC’s An- Viterbi, then a colleague at UCLA, nenberg School of resulting bill dramatically and Irwin Jacobs. Viterbi and Communication, improved computer Jacobs went on to found Qual- where he also teach- network infrastructure comm. Kleinrock also founded es. He has written three books, many Nomadix, Inc., which produces research papers and countless across the U.S. and network gateway equipment. He news articles about Internet ethics, paved the way for the currently leads TTI/Vanguard, socioeconomic effects of technolo- Internet’s current ubiquity. another of his companies, which gy, social media politics, and Inter- provides a membership-based net history.

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